I hope you’re well and aren’t melting in this glorious sunshine we’re being graced with!
We have tried to stay optimistic about the lifting of lockdown on Freedom Day and hoped the country would be returning to normal and yet as you can all see; this is not quite the situation.
The Government Guidance is that restrictions have officially lifted and yet if you are putting on a large event, you still need to follow many restrictions to put on a safe event.
Over the past few months, we have been watching the steps take place and easing of the restrictions happening almost as planned and yet as we reach the final step, we see cases are rising and the risk is still around us.
We have come to the very difficult decision that although we see other events are taking place, with our Petersfield Summer Festival taking place on the open streets and market square in town, there will be no way we can control numbers of visitors attending, we will not be able to check to see if visitors have been vaccinated who are attending and there will be no way for us to have any control over social distancing with such large crowds as we usually have attending.
With the sacrifices we have all had to make over the past year and more, we do not want to be the team who put on a local large-scale event and be the cause of even a single person becoming ill.
While we appreciate this will be disappointing and believe it when we say we are so gutted to have to cancel yet another one of our events, we simply cannot take the risk to add to any increase in Covid cases to take us backwards.
On top of this there is the possibility of cases rising and restrictions being put back at the last minute and we would need to cancel at the last minute causing further financial losses with wasted hours of planning and stock being bought and in the current climate, insurance companies are not covering events for cancellations and after struggling so hard to survive during lockdown, we do not want to put ourselves under even more financial strain.
The safety of our exhibitors and guests are paramount as well as the future of Hometown to be able to bring our awesome events back for all to enjoy.
I hope you all appreciate and understand our position on this, and we hope to see you all again soon.
Regards,
Steve